1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data communications networks, and specifically to control of subscriber usage in wireless networks.
2. Background Art
An increasingly large number of individuals use portable computing devices, such as laptop computers, personal data assistants (PDAs), smart phones and the like, to support mobile communications. The number of computing devices, and the volume of data communicated, has increased dramatically in recent years. Market studies have concluded that this trend of ever-increasing demands for data communication coupled with subscribers seeking expanded mobility will continue for quite some time.
As telecommunications technology continues to evolve to meet this ever increasing demand, service providers continue to make investments in state-of-the-art technology in order to remain at the forefront of offerings in the marketplace. However, in order to maximize the experience of their subscriber base, service providers are constantly challenged to ensure trouble-free support for the modern wireless data communications protocols, while limiting subscribers who consume excessive bandwidth at the expense of other subscribers.
In 3G data communications networks, subscribers are typically provided with a high bandwidth limit to ensure that the bursty nature of the current generation of data communication protocols is fully supported. An engineering assumption made by wireless service providers is that users infrequently reach this high limit. However, some subscribers are exploiting this high bandwidth setting and are continuously using the service at the high bandwidth limit. These subscribers are considered to be abusing the wireless communications system. Because there is an overall bandwidth limit in any given geographical coverage area, continuous usage at an excessive level by certain subscribers reduces the available bandwidth for the rest of the subscriber base. The net result is a diminished experience for the vast majority of subscribers. Although the number of subscribers who are guilty of excessive usage is currently few, their numbers are expected to grow significantly in the near term, and pose a significant challenge to communications network providers.
Although excessive usage often results from the use of certain types of applications, the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) techniques to identify such excessive usage is considered by the Federal Communications Commission to be discriminatory, and therefore not acceptable. Accordingly, identification of such excessive use must be approached at the level of usage metrics, rather than through an evaluation of the data content being communicated. Moreover, any attempt to deal with the problem of excessive usage by certain subscribers must also take into account the real-time usage information of the network. If such information was not taken into account, some subscribers would potentially face a service reduction without any compensating benefit being made available to other subscribers.
Another approach to solving the excessive usage issue is to use network controls to configure the maximum bit rate permissible. Since network controls are distributed across the network, such an approach would be highly scalable. However, such network controls lack subscriber state information. Consequently, this network control approach is unable to adapt based on different subscriber usage situations, e.g., prior subscriber usage within a given session, prior subscriber usage during a prior session, or subscriber usage during a current billing period.
What is therefore needed is a sophisticated technique for monitoring current and/or prior subscriber data usage of a communications network to identify excessive usage warranting corrective action by the communications data operator.